A state police investigation into dozens of sexual abuse allegations at a prestigious boarding school has concluded with no criminal charges, authorities announced Thursday.
Police looked at allegations of abuse of students at St. George’s School by seven former faculty members, one current employee and three former students and at allegations that current and prior administrators didn’t report abuse to the proper authorities.
Police and the attorney general’s office determined they cannot proceed with criminal charges for a variety of reasons, including the statute of limitations and changes in the laws since some of the abuse occurred, as far back as the 1970s. The most recent allegation of abuse police investigated was in 2005, they said.
“Unfortunately for those who came forward, they will not be able to seek justice within the criminal justice system due to the applicable statutes defining conduct and statute of limitations,” police said in a statement.
Some of the instances of failing to report abuse happened before 1979, when it wasn’t defined as a crime, and in other cases there was a three-year statute of limitations, which had passed.
Representatives for the Episcopal school, located in Middletown, near Newport, didn’t immediately comment. The school apologized in December for how it handled abuse cases.
Anne Scott, who was raped repeatedly by an athletic trainer at the school in the 1970s, when she was a teenager, said the report highlighted the need for reform in the state’s statute of limitations laws.
“Without reform to our legal systems, it continues to be hard for survivors to get justice,” said Scott, of Charlottesville, Virginia.
Scott now leads a group advocating for abuse survivors, called SGS for Healing.